Th O&EGdlf fffAYESMXZC. Salem, OrecoxC Tuesday Moni&g. May 28. 1942
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"No Faror Stoays Us; No Fear Shall Aue"
From First Statesman, March 28, 1831
THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING CO.
CHARLES A. S PRAGUE, President
Member of The Associated Press
The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use for publication of all
news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper.
OS
0j
i
Nl - f
Price Control in Practice
, It was not a hopeless picture of the future
which Banker E. B. MacNaughton painted for a
Salem chamber of commerce luncheon audi
ence on Mondayand by the same token neith
er was it a bright picture, particularly that
portion of it which dealt with the immediate
business future. Since successfully combatting
the dictatorships necessitates the temporary
adoption of their methods, regimentation of
business is under way; the operation of many
types of business will be more "difficult, suc
cessful operation will depend upon ability to
make the necessary ad justments. In some cases,
even under the most capable management, the
necessary adjustments will be impossible.
Mr. MacNaughton's predictions, were voiced
with obvious reluctance and doubtless with
such restraint as candor would permit. We feel
rather safe in assuming that few of the busi
nessmen in his audience accepted them as
wholly impersonal statements having no possi
ble relation to themselves. As for the retail
grocers who have been working night and day
to make the adjustments necessary to com
pliance with the "general maximum price reg
ulation," they must have considered his remarks
rank under-statements.
The impression gained by a Statesman re
porter in surveying the price control situation
last weekend was primarily one of confusion
occasioned by lack of adequate, clear and non
contradictory instructions. Possibly few of the
merchants, harassed additionally by a shortage
of experienced help, had been able to pause
long enough to gauge the probable over-all
effect of the regulation upon their business.
The National Association of Retail Grocers,
endeavoring to gauge the results in advance, is
pessimistic. It predicted in a recent bulletin
that price freezing would mean "outright ruin"
for some retailers and went on to point out that
those retailers -and wholesalers who tried to
cooperate voluntarily in holding prices down,
will be penalized more than those who followed,
In March, a contrary course. .Other inequities in
the control regulations are also cited.
We rather suspect that the association, or
rather its spokesman who makes lugubrious
predictions, is an advocate. In the interests of
his members he wants to be in position to pro
test and to obtain adjustments some of which
doubtless will be necessary and will be made.
A Wall Street Journal writer who made as
competent a survey as could be made in view
of the fact that no actual results are yet avail
able, was somewhat less lugubrious, though not
what you'd call optimistic. Margin between
buying price and selling price is going to be
reduced on some items. In no case will a
merchant have to sell at an actual money loss,
except temporarily on goods bought since March
1.' If his selling price is less than the buying
price, he won't buy.
Thus the retailer's problem boils down to one
of overhead and volume well, with such addi
tional worries as maintaining personnel and
getting merchandise, and perhaps we shouldn't
have said "boils down." But there it is. The
merchant who can maintain a volume of sales
sufficient to match his overhead at the reduced
margin, will get along.
People have to eat. For that reason retail
grocers suffered less than many other businesses
in the recent depression. For the same reason
someone is going to be in business, selling gro
ceries, in the months and years ahead no mat
ter what else happens. Salem's grocers, our
reporter learned in making the survey last
weekend, are not downhearted just a bit dis
traught over their temporary problems. The
rest of us can afford a bit of sympathy for them.
Not too much they don't need it. And sup
posing they do have problems? Who hasn't?
Three Up, Three Down
Through , the public power advocates are by
their own campaign- arguments estopped from
use ofjhe alibi, the war with its monopolizing
demand for Bonneville power and its priority
upon the materials for power line construction
served to discourage creation of new PUDs in
Oregon at the recent election. Three districts
were on the ballot, all three were rejected.
Otherwise the conditions were favorable. In
the WasUngton county and Columbia county
cases the cities and larger towns were excluded
from tV proposed districts so that the rural
vote wThich. in a majority of previous elections
has supported the proposals, was in these
Instances predominant. Yet the Washington
county project lost by almost 2 to 1, the one
in Columbia county by a substantial margin.
In Union county, home of Walter Pierce and
Henry Hess, and the scene of a much more
persistent pro-Bonneville campaign allegedly
directed from the office of Administrator Raver
though this is denied, the margin of defeat was
slight some 22 votes to be more exact. For
obvious reasons the rates charged by a private
utility in LaGrande are somewhat higher than
those in Willamette valley cities, so that the
advantage of Bonneville "postage stamp" rates
there would seem more attractive.
Little more needs to be said of the result of
these elections but some comment upon cam
paign methods seems to be in order. The private
utilities used wartime conditions as an argument
against creation of the PUIXr They opposed
diversion of Bonneville power from war indus
tries and the, use of scarce materials for un
necessary expansion or duplication of power
systems.
Any intelligent citizen was privileged to
Judge for himself that the power companies
were glad to have this argument and that their
motives were in part selfish but that didn't
tnake the argument any the less sound or
pertinent, nor their use of it inappropriate.
' But - Bonneville Adniinistrator Raver in a
raaio transcription used by the PUD advocates,
said this argument was "a. cheap type of self
serving patriotism that hides its real selfish
motive behind the American flag. A similar
tatement was used in duplicate advertisements
published in all three At the proposed district
illustrated with a cartoon of a repulsive
Nipponese-appearing '.ut9 wrapped In an
r"!7,lwrT!
a -:--.-.-..
Paul Mailoo
American flag. Some newspapers refused to
run it in just that form; the American Legion
post at LaGrande ran an advertisement -condemning
the PUD ad. Resentment was wide
spread and may linger on to embarrass PUD
advocates when they resume their campaign
which probably will not be until after the
war.
British war production workers enjoyed a
holiday on Whit Monday, May 25 rtheir first
general holiday this year. Most holidays have
been cancelled but health authorities recom
mended that this one be observed and the gov
ernment and public opinion concurred".- But
the workers had nowhere to spend the holi
day but at home. No special holiday trains
and no automobile tours. They've had gaso
line rationing since early in the war.
News Behind
The News
By PAUL MALLON
(Distribution by King reatures Syndicate. Inc. Repro
duction In whole or In part strictly prohibited.)
WASHINGTON, May 25 Mr. Roosevelt lightly
rapped the knuckles of Vice President Wallace and
his mis-named board of ecenomic warfare again
last week and told it to stop reaching deeper into
the prerogatives of State Secretary Hull.
Everyone outside has considered this argument
an uninteresting technical dis
pute over power. Not much
public attention was drawn to
it
In my opinion, the issues in
volved constitute the second
most important story in Wash
ington and the world. Down
beneath the conflict in authori
ty, it seems to me, is a basic
fundamental difference of
opinion as to procedure in the
post-war world. The manner
in which these two opposing
forces are eventually aliened
will determine the course of the
world we live in for perhaps many generations.
The opposing forces do not yet admit that this
fundamental conflict exists, but you can see it
sticking out of, their respective speeches as obvious
as the Washington monument and Jefferson me
morial. There is no need to go beyond their spoken
official words to prove it.
In the first place neither side is thinking pri
marily about economic warfare. Mr. Wallace's
primary Interest is to prepare a plan for the post
war world. A few weeks back (May 9) he made
a speech called "The Price of Free World Victory,"
which seems to be drawing considerable reprint
publicity because of the attention it did not attract
at the time.
In that speech, Mr. Wallace said a lot about
liberty with which everyone agreed, (no one is
against world liberty anywhere in our realm so this
point can be accepted as unanimously adopted),
and then he illustrated his post-war purposes with
an anecdote as follows:
"Half in fun and half seriously, I said the other
day to Madame Litvinoff:
" 'The object of this war is to make sure that
everybody in the world has the privilege of drink
ing a quart of milk a day.'
"She replied:
" 'Yes, even half a pint
"The peace must mean a better standard of
living for the common man, not merely in the
United States and England, but also in India, Rus
sia, China and Latin America not merely in the
United Nations, but also in Germany and Italy and
Japan."
Inadequately but pointedly this illustrates what
Mr. Wallace and the 'thinkers with whom he has
surrounded himself are driving at. His right hand
men are Milo Perkins and Louis H. Bean, former
officials and economic advisers in Mr. Wallace's
former agriculture department. Their tendency
is to look at the world through farmers' glasses,
and to guide their vision along new deal spending
and social reform lines.
They want a new deal of the world to come out
of this war. They talk of diet in India and China,
working hours and needed ease in Japan and
Germany, the necessity for industrializing small
and remote nations, a lot more spending by us and
a lot more morale reforming by us to bring these
things about.
The speeches of Mr. Hull and his group of asso
ciated thinkers do not sound like that. Around
Mr. Hull are Herbert Feis, ecenomic adviser; As
sistant State Secretary Adolph Berle; Leo Pasvol
sky, special assistant, and even Norman Davis
sits in occasionally. Theirs seems to be the prac
tical trade approach in contrast to Mr. Wallace's
spending-social reform visionary approach.
Of course, both sides occasionally work into
their public utterances a little of the other side's
medicine, but their emphasis is distinctly contrary,
although they will concede so far that their- ideas
only "overlap," "duplicate," and "mtenningle."
The Hull group lays heavily upon the Hull re
ciprocal trade means of esUbUshing a new world,
abolition of tariff barriers, and restrictions to
trade, free access to raw materials. As I get it,
their idea is not so much to remake the world, as
to make it work.
Presumably they would not finance industriliza
tion of China, for instance, but would swap our
typewriters, automobiles and industrial products
for what the Chinese already have, soy beans, silk,
etc. They do not seem to me to be worrying so
much about whether a Belgian worker would have
a five, four, three or two day week, or whether
he drinks milk or beer, but would take the products
of his labor in return for some of ours.
It seems true the way Hull's boys are thinking
might cost us considerably less money than the
way the Wallace boys want to go about it, but the
now congealing theory is not to be costless.
One of his men is working on an international
long-term credit plan in which some organization
like the RFC would invest large; sums of our
money in under-developed nations to enable them
to produce.
Also both sides agree the world expects to de
pend on us for food and clothing immediately after
the war; and these must be furnished IVke the war
implements on credit. r
As Mr. Roosevelt has divided them now, they
are to keep out of each other's hidr as much as
possible and act polite to each other (as they
certainly are), but the question Mr. Roosevelt will
have to decide eventually is which side is right,
and he may take a look, before deciding, at the
side of the treasury debt after the war to see how
much world new dealing we can afford, and how
much taxes the people of this country will want
or be able to pay to finance it
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sron Ohio)
By KIRKE L. SIMPSON
Wide World War Analyst for
1 The Statesman
Conflicting reports from the
Kharkov front in Russia throw
little light on the probable dura
tion or outcome of the first
pitched battle . of "the summer
campaign; but they do reveal
that for once the Russians are on
something like even terms with
their nazi foes In modem .waj
equipment.
The size of the armies ia
Telved eaa only be eoajee
tared from the fact that aa
Irregular flg-hUng- front snore
than 2t miles long appears
U be aflame with attack and
eoanter-sttack. That means
troops by the hundred thou
sand on both sides.
More than two weeks have
elapsed since Marshal Timoshen
ko seized the initiative and
struck out to hamstring an im
pending German offensive be
fore it could get rolling. In that
time, there has been no intima
tion that the nazis have succeed
ed in gaining control of the air
or breaking armored panzer col
umns loose to hinge deep behind
Russian lines.
Lacking those two, prime fac
tors, which have figured in
every preceding German victory
in Russia, the battle of Kharkov
may go down in history as the
turning point of the war. Even
Russian failure to take Kharkov
or to break through to the Dnie
per crossings and undermine the
whole German southern flank
could not be set down as a de
feat if it delayed Hitler's promis
ed master offensive.
If Timoshenko has succeeded
in sucking into the blazing strug
gle any substantial portion of
nazi reserves behind the Ukraine
front and worn them down by
'Crime at
By EDITH BRISTOL
Chapter 25 Continued
"I'm coming to that That's
what makes me feel that a hick
peace officer, from the sticks -may
find things out, after all
If you give him time."
I knew Allen took time and
did things his own way. Right
now hisrown way was slowly
driving me frantic. "What hap
pened?" I asked again.
"Early this morning, some
body, a man's voice it was, tele
phoned headquarters here and
asked for one of the detectives
working on the case of Estelle
Gregg. The two men from here
had just got back from this
apartment. One of them took
the call."
Sometimes Allen's deliberate
way of telling his story was the
most infuriating thing!
"Where did the call come
from?" Martha asked. She was
getting impatient, too.
"It was from a pay station in
the city here. They checked the
call. The man's voice said he
could give valuable Information
that would lead to the discovery
of the person responsible for
Mrs. Gregg's death and also for
other crimes. He then added
that he, the speaker, had over
heard Lance Gregg threaten to
poison Mrs. Gregg"
"That's preposterous!"" Mar
tha exclaimed., "Lance could no
more poison anybody than
than" Words failed her. But
something clicked in my mem
ory. What had Lance said, only
yesterday morning? Was it only
yesterday? "The only think I'd
like to give that dame would be
a double portion of rat poison!"
The words flashed back to me.
And Lance had said them there
in the hall, . returning from the
drug store with the fatal sleep
ing tablets. But who had heard
him?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Allen went on with his re
port There wasn't much more
to tell. "Landers and Howell
must have stepped on the gas.
They covered the ground at
Castaway, and at the same time
had two men up at Gallina dam
at the construction camp. They
missed Lance but they searched
his room that's when they
found the gun.
Now Sydney, for the first time,
asked - a question. "But what
about the records? Dont you
have to getsa permit? Don't you
have to sign for gun when you
buy .one?" s
"They covered that angle, too,"
Allen answered. "The gun was
bought, about three months ago
in a San Francisco pawnshop .
and the record of the safe charges
it to Lance Gregg, Berkeley. The
signature on the permit gives
the name Lance Gregg and the
address is his fraternity house
over near the University campus.
Re was a California student, you
remember, three months ago."
Allen turned to Martha.
"He lived in Berkeley, three
months ago but my boy Lance
never bought a gun to kill then
or anyother time." Martha held
up her head proudly ; on her
losses In men and equipment to
the extent Russian official ac
counts report, he -has already
seriously short-circuited the Hit
ler offensive schedule.
Kerch .peninsula, bridgehead
the the Caucasus, is again com
pletely in German hands. Heavy
red losses there are' highly prob
able. Unjess the nazis can soon
clinch an even "greater victory in
the Kharkov fight, however, and
emerge from that conflict in
shape to exploit it promptly, the
value of the Kerch bridgehead
to them will be doubtful.
It has seemed certain since
Timoshenko's broad strategy be
came clear with the red attack
at Kharkov that he regarded the
Kerch front as wholly secondary.
He had opportunity to mass men
and equipment there in sufficient
strength to challenge the foe suc
cessfully bad he so desired; but
elected to make Kerch merely a
holding operation while he con
centrated for a counter smash at
Kharkov.
Kerch peninsula in Russian
hands was obviously only an
outpost position covering the
far better defensive terrain
that Kerch strait and the are
east of it afford. If its loss has
cost the nazis as heavily as in
, dicated, It served its purpose
well.
The cumulative attrition of
Kerch and Kharkov on nazi
striking power is yet to be meas
ured by events. If it has been
anywhere near as great as Rus
sian observers claim, in their
tales of German tanks shattered
by the hundred and nazi plane!
shot down and bombed on the
ground, the battle of Kharkof
must be recorded as a Russiaft
victory regardless of the status
of the city itself or Russian fail
ure to recch the Dnieper cross
ings immediately.
Castaway7
square shoulders. "And there
are enough of us here in this
room to prove it no matter if
all the police on earth find evi
dence to indicate that he did."
"That's right, Martha," Allen
said. "We had enough to work
for when we were trying to find
out who killed the victims. But
now we've got to protect the liv
ing. Somebody's out to hang
both killings on Lance."
"Lance carried his own gun
when we found the Durfee car
and how could they accuse him
of that when the car was over
the cliff when we got there?"
"Landers admits that is the
weak place in the case but says
it could be possible. The car
might have been sent over the
cliff before we started our
search," said the sheriff.
But I wasn't thinking about
the Durfee killing, just then.
Uppermost in my mind was the
question:
"Who, if anybody, heard Lance
make that tndisreeet remark
about the rat poison? Who was
using that against him? Who
had access to his room in the
camp and could plant a gun there
to accuse him?"
The poison threat must come
first And suddenly I remem
bered! a
But, for once, I didn't tell
Allen what I remembered. -This
time I'd try by myself and see
how much I could find out. The
city detectives had quickly found
a scapegoat in. the person of
Lance. The Gallina sheriff was
working in his own way and, so
far, had disclosed nothing. Now,
I'd try a little independent de
tecting on my own account
(To be continued)
The
Safety Valve
Letters from Statesman
Readers
VOTE AFTERMATH
To the Editor: If Gov. Charles
A. Sprague knew .the feelings of
the people he would have no
cause to feel blue over the elec
tion. Of course I boosted Mr.
Snell. I stated to the voters that
Mr. Sprague had made us a
good governor, but that I liked
Snell Just a little the best and
you know just about every voter
I talked to said that was just
their ticket they liked Sprague
but liked Snell just a little the
best
. I still think that Mr. Sprague
would make us a fine United
States senator, and, I am sure
that if he will run against Rufus
'Cust Holman, Mr. Sprague will
find that most of Snell voters
will switch to Mr. Sprague for
the senate two years hence.
: No, you are not unpopular
Mr. Sprague, you have made us
- a good governor and we know
that you are a fine man, so just
take a little rest and about
January, 1944, make your an
nouncement for the US senate
and you will see that the people
think that you are OK for the
office to which you fit into.
, A. A. Anderson,
Newberg, Orei